1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to reactions which are catalyzed by heterogeneous catalysts. More particularly the invention relates to the reaction of normally gaseous reactants in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst. Most particularly the invention relates to the use of an inert component in a catalytic distillation column wherein the inert component is boiling and condensing.
2. Related Art
Over the years there have developed many methods of carrying out reactions in the presence of a solid heterogeneous catalyst. The most commonly used is probably the fixed bed downflow or trickle bed reactor. Also used is the upflow reactor which may have an ebullating bed if the flow rate is high enough. When the catalyst is fine and the reactants are gaseous a common method has been the fluidized bed. Similar to the fluidized bed is the slurry reactor wherein the solid catalyst is carried in one or more reactant streams. Finally there has arisen the reaction distillation column wherein the catalyst is disposed in a distillation column in a suitable form to act as a distillation structure. The final method has additional advantages in that the reaction products are separated from the reactants almost immediately upon formation by fractional distillation. This is particularly used in otherwise equilibrium limited reactions.
The use of catalytic distillation has been traditionally limited by the fact that one of the reactants must be a boiling liquid at the conditions inside the reactor. In the earlier catalytic distillation processes both reactants were fed to the reactor as liquids. More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,780 has shown that the catalytic distillation method is useful in a process wherein hydrogen is a reaction component.